Modern Business Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Modern Business Research Methods - Essay Example through research. Research is all about fact gathering, relating facts with a focus idea, analysis, drawing conclusion and lastly acting and implementing. Over time, with technology emerging new avenues have been developed to collect data; each and every method of research is suited to particular requirements and factors and is used as per the benefit cost analysis of the situation. Some aspects of the past are studied either by perusing documents of the period or by interviewing individuals who have lived or have experienced during that time. An attempt is then made to study why certain things happened during that time and to explain as to why they happened. The documents that are generally consulted include newspapers, journals and magazines that were published and especially the data government and other private agencies maintain for both commercial and own use. The idea of conducting historical research does not indicate that it is unstructured; in fact, it is systematic process of searching for facts and then using the information to describe, analyse and interpret the past. The purpose of this research is to make people aware of what happened in the past so that they may learn from past failures and successes and to see whether they are applicable to present day problems and issues. It also assists in prediction and testing hypothesis concerning relationships or trends. FOCUS GROUPS: Focus groups are mainly interviews that let open discussion of the topic. They are generally used to develop new ideas. It has an objective and does not generally allow the discussion to deviate from it. People in focus groups openly share their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and ideas on the topic under the discussion. Generally, the focus group consists of 6-10 people at a time and a moderator who is responsible for facilitating the debate. The main advantage of focus group includes that views of many different people are gathered at one place. Since it is less formal than the structured interviews thus participants feel comfortable sharing their perspectives. Some of the drawbacks of focus group include that the views of individual participants are generally influenced by other participants and may indulge in group think. Moreover, it is difficult to gather people in one common location at a time. SURVEYS: This method involves asking the individuals questions which might be open or close ended. Surveys can be orally done or through written questionnaires. It is helpful in gathering primary data through a large number of audiences. The best part of using survey as a method of research is that they can be done face-to-face, via telephone, emails, fax etc. And thus it helps the researcher reach a mass number of respondents to gather information. Surveys can be cross-sectional or longitudinal Surveys are generally done to gather informa